Eagles at Saints: Five matchups to watch

The Saints have a nice mix of shiftiness (Alvin Kamara) and power (Jamaal Williams, Taysom Hill) in their backfield:

Vic Fangio has to find a way to get his run defense fixed, and soon, or it's going to be a long season.

"Obviously the run defense, particularly this past game, was nowhere near good enough, and I thought we could do that better," Fangio said.

2) Where might the Eagles go feastin'? 🍗

The Eagles' pass rush has been non-existent through the first two games of the season. Bryce Huff looks disinterested, Josh Sweat looks more like the player he was during the back half of 2023 than the one he was in 2022 and the first half of 2023, Nolan Smith doesn't seem ready to make plays in an elevated role, and Jordan Davis has been a non-factor. If you're an opposing offensive coordinator, scheming protections is pretty straightforward — double Jalen Carter, and dare everyone else to win their one-on-ones.

The idea that the Eagles might go "feastin'" feels laughable at the moment. Still, as always, we take a look at the opposing team's offensive line:

Entering the season, the Saints' offensive line looked like a pretty obvious area of concern, but so far they have gotten solid play from all three interior players, and first-round rookie Taliese Fuagu looks the part. If there's one spot on the line where I would still be concerned if I'm a Saints fan, it would be Trevor Penning at RT.

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The Saints placed longtime RT Ryan Ramczyk on the reserve PUP list before the start of training camp, ending his season. Ramczyk was once a first-team All-Pro, and he has two Pro Bowls under his belt, but he has a lingering knee injury. Penning has taken over for Ramczyk at RT. After the Saints made him a first round pick in 2022, Penning was viewed as a bust, starting just five games in his first two seasons and not playing well when he got opportunities. He has shown a little more promise so far in 2024, but he should still be viewed as the Saints' potential weak link along the offensive line.

"If you don't stop the run, you're not going to get in the obvious pass," Fangio said. "The team we're playing this week, they either run it or max protect play action, run boots. They're doing a great job offensively, which makes it hard."

#FeastinMeter: 2 turkey legs 🍗🍗

3) The Eagles' secondary vs. the Saints' explosive receivers

If the Eagles' pass rush cannot affect Derek Carr, the Saints have two bigtime playmakers in their offense in Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed who can do a lot of damage.

Olave reminds me a little of DeVonta Smith, in that they're both excellent route runners with great body control. His career is off to a fast start, with 1000-plus yard seasons as a rookie in 2022 and in his second year in 2023.

Shaheed is the deep threat, who Carr has connected with early in games in each of their wins. Here's his TD Week 1 against the Panthers:

Aaaaand his TD Week 2 against the Cowboys: 

Shaheed caught 6 passes on 6 targets for 79 yards against the Eagles as a rookie during the 2022 season.

What a couple of great throws by Carr, by the way, on the money while under pressure.

Through two games, Carr is 30-for-39 (76.9%) for 443 yards (11.4 YPA), 5 TDs, and 1 INT, for a QB rating of 142.4. If the season ended today (it doesn't), he'd be the MVP. Of course, new Saints OC Klint Kubiak deserves all the adulation that he is getting at the moment, as his offense has been outstanding keeping opposing defenses guessing.

Or if you have 20 minutes to kill, a longer version of the Saints' offense killing the Cowboys, and Carr's impressive accuracy:

"I think this offense really suits him," Fangio said. "He's always been one of the most talented passers in the league. He throws it short, intermediate, and deep very, very well. Throws a great deep ball. They're max protecting a lot, giving him time. They're running boots. They've got the running game going. I think this offense and him is a really good marriage."

The Saints' offense is playing at an extremely high level, while the Eagles' defense looks a lot like it did to close the 2023 season.

4) Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts vs. the Saints' run defense

Above we noted that the Saints have one of the best rushing offenses statistically through the first two games, partly because they have blown out each of their first two opponents. Well, same thing on the defensive side of the ball.

The Eagles' rushing attack has been a bright spot so far, with Barkley showing that he still has burst, and Hurts running with some speed, power, and emotion Week 2. If A.J. Brown can't play in this game, the Eagles are going to have to lean heavily on their rushing attack.

5) The Eagles' offensive staff vs. their insistence on running RPOs

The Eagles' RPO game stinks. 

The cut-off part of that Twitter embed says, "When you account for the penalty yardage, the Eagles have thrown the ball on 8 RPOs for -5 total yards."

Those are just the pass plays. When they run the ball on RPOs and Hurts keeps, he is running to the sideline or sliding for very meager gains. He has done his damage as a runner more on pass plays or non-RPO designed runs.

The Eagles' RPO game was effective in 2021 and 2022. It no longer is. Wake up and stop running them, or at least take a break and come back to it when opposing defenses aren't looking for it anymore. Right now they're wasted downs.

They're probably not going anywhere, to be clear.

"It's been a really successful component for us, so we don't want to lose that element of our offense," Kellen Moore said.

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